CHIBOK TRAGEDY THROUGH THE EYES OF HELON HABILA

Sometimes we may not have a proper grasp of events happening around us, not because we lack the accurate information but because of the manner in which the information is presented to us. When one experiences chaos, unrest or even war, it's usually difficult to make others understand the agony it entails. Yet, storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that could be used to provide close-to similar experiences of those horrible occasions.

The Chibok Girls is a short piece written by Helon Habila, a Nigerian novelist and poet whose writings have won multiple awards. He scrupulously narrated the abduction of 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, a town in southern Borno state of Northeastern Nigeria by Boko Haram in April 2014. He was so courageous to have fared through Borno state while navigating his way to Chibok town multiple times in 2016, just two years after the abduction to have interviews with firsthand victims of the crisis. He meticulously narrated the hurdles they had to pass through on their way to Chibok from Maiduguri. It's worth noting that Habila's skill of storytelling is indeed legendary that a reader must have no option than to simply walk seamlessly in the persona’s shoe feeling the great ordeals and carrying the burden of heavy heart courtesy of the story’s misery

Habila took us through the hideous encounter by the denizens of Chibok town, recounting the night Boko Haram attacked, gun shots all over which made people flee through the terrains in darkest of hours to the neighboring villages, some commanded their wives to run while they ventured into the town searching for their kids and loved ones. That singular night marked the separation of some families with each other, as some met their ultimate end in the attack while others kidnapped and yet to be found. Boko Haram sometimes took days raiding a town, destroying properties, scavenging everything of value while killing the men, raping the women, abducting the boys to serve as their recruits. So barbaric, like vikings of old Scandanavia. It was a traumatizing experience for people in Northeast as they lived their life on guard throughout those years in fear of such horror.

It's similar experience in Maiduguri too, the state capital of Borno, as some residents sold their houses cheaply to escape Boko haram plunders in the early days of their evangelism to relocate to presumed safe villages. But at the end, when the Nigerian Military forced them to the edges of the state, the villages became the epicentre of their strikes. This caused them to return back to their own Maiduguri as refugees.

The book tried to conscientiously recount the Chibok Girls abduction, the life of the victims’ families afterward, the government effort in retrieving the girls and even tracing the history of violence in the affected region. The author been born in Gombe state amidst Muslim practicing community, concurred that Islam is peace-loving faith yet, it was radicalized in the hands of Boko Haram and argued that the pool of almajiri was another factor that Boko Haram seized to populate its membership. The book also highlighted the Federal Government of Goodluck Jonathan’s non-challant attitude which further escalated the case.